Sixpoint Brewery Part One: Brownstone, Sweet Action, Bengali Tiger

Before my trip to New York there was one brewery who's beers I was looking forward to trying more than any others, Sixpoint.

This little craft beer company, brewing out of the hipster strewn streets of Brooklyn, have achieved nothing but high praise from anybody I've spoken to who've tried the beers.

I also like the fact that they only do cans. A) because hoppy beers stay fresh and brightly hoppy for longer in a can than a bottle (no light), B) because cans are much mor environmentally sustainable than glass, and C) because at least in America where they are properly established, cans tend to be cheaper than a bottle of the same size.

Sixpoint beer was widely available throughout Manhattan as well as Brooklyn when we were there. In fact, the only craft beer available in our West Village hotel was Sixpoint Righteous Ale, and whilst $9 a 16oz (equivalent to 500ml) can isn't exactly cheap it looked like a bargain next to a bottle of Budweiser at $8.

Luckily Sixpoint cans were very well priced in the beer shops I visited (most under $3 a large can) so I stocked up my suitcase before comings home (plus cans are lighter and aren't going to smash in my bag). I brought back at least one of each from they're core range. Here's what I thought of the first three:

Sixpoint Brownstone - American Brown Ale

I think I was expecting a hoppy amber ale but this is definitely an American style brown ale. The aroma is light but there's a malt sweetness with an underlying toasted, very nearly roadted edge. The flavour is initially all malt and biscuit dryness before a slowly bittering finish.

The bitterness in the finish is like over toasted nuts with just a smidge of tobacco. A really drinkable beer thanks to the light sweetness in the body and that fully bitter, precisely clean finish, with no lingering sugar from the initial flavour.

Sixpoint Sweet Action - Cream Ale

This beer smells great. But it isn't the hops doing most of the work, it's that big sweetly malty body that gives off a huge waft of caramel and butterscotch which dominate the aroma, with just a little spicy orange flickering through in the background.

The flavour is really, really balanced between sweet caramel malt and clean fruity bitterness. It is initially sweet before the hops kick in and clean up the party with a satisfying dryness. Spicy hops throw a bit of white pepper into the mix at the very end but the overall impression is beautifully bittersweet. A balanced American beer!

Sixpoint Bengali Tiger - IPA

This pours a luminous bright orange, a perfect American IPA colour. It has a great fresh citrus hop aroma of orange, lemon pith, grapefruit, sweet tangerines, as well as just a tiny bit of bubblegum and white pepper.

The flavour is more of the same; I.e. lots and lots of citrus. Only very lightly sweet, with a big citrus fruit centre and a pithy, puckering finish. The aftertaste is bone dry sherry and grapefruit.